Twenty Six Truths About Monsters
by MoonClaimed
Summary: Truth: Love makes monsters of us all. Chapter 1: Kenshin, Hiko, Tomoe and Enishi play their parts. Chapter 2: Sano, Kenshin, and Saitou.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Rurouni Kenshin does not belong to me, and neither does the twenty truths format (even though I have 26...). **Manga-as-canon.** Please read and review!

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**Twenty Six Truths about Monsters and Demons**

**One**

Truth: Himura Kenshin was set on the path of the Hitokiri when he was six years old. This was not when he was the sole survivor of a massacre, but almost two years earlier—when his baby sister starved to death because his mother's breast ran dry, his grandfather collapsed in the fields and never woke up, and he made a game of feeling the bumps of his own ribs—and then he overheard a neighbor tell his father that the Bafuku was raising taxes again.

**Two**

Truth: He didn't understand what the neighbor was talking about or who this 'Bafuku' was, but when his father started crying, Shinta swore that he would hate them forever.

**Three**

Truth: The massacre didn't help.

**Four**

Truth: When Hiko went back to bury the body of the boy he had saved, it never even crossed his mind that the child might still be alive. The only reason he even bothered—he wasn't going to bury anyone else after all—was because it played to his sense of poetic irony.

**Five**

Truth: He has never seen anything wrong with this.

**Six**

Truth: When Hiko saw what tiny little Shinta had done—buried over thirty grown men and women with his bare hands—he decided to train him. This was not because he admired his dedication to the human spirit, as Kenshin believed in later years, but only because it proved he had adequate muscle and the sheer pig-headed stubbornness Hiko thought all the best swordsmen should have.

**Seven**

Truth: The real reason Hiko let Kenshin go was because he didn't think he had the right to stop his deshi from following a path that Hiko had chosen also. Like most Mitsurugi masters, he had also once been an idealistic youth who wanted to change the world—even if he had never been as blindly naive about what it would mean.

**Eight**

Truth: Hiko never earned a name as a hitokiri. This is only because he was twice as efficient and half as noticeable as his redheaded apprentice.

**Nine**

Truth: At the very top levels of the Meiji government, there are still people searching for the man who had once been the Bafuku's best weapon. The only reason they haven't found him yet is that he was smart enough not to give his superiors the name of his sword style. The fact that Kenshin did is the real reason Hiko will always think of him as a baka deshi.

**Ten**

Truth: Kenshin was never too kind to be a hitokiri. In fact, he was just kind enough. The only reason he agreed to kill was because he loved people so freely and so fiercely. Even so, he almost punched Katsura in the face after his first assignment.

**Eleven**

Truth: The common soldiers of the Bakumatsu—even of the Ishin shishi—knew the teenager Himura Kenshin as the Demon of Kyoto long before he ever earned the name Battousai. It actually started as a teasing nickname that the older men gave the little boy with the red hair—before they knew what it was he actually did for Katsura.

**Twelve**

Truth: Half of those men really believed he was a kitsune. Once they saw him in battle, they thought him a dragon. They weren't far off.

**Thirteen**

Truth: Tomoe changed her mind about killing Kenshin—but not until they had been married for nearly four months.

**Fourteen**

Truth: She knew Kenshin deserved to live within three days of meeting him. This didn't change anything.

**Fifteen**

Truth: She fell in love with him the first time she realized he was serious about why he had joined the war, long before they were married. This didn't change anything either.

**Sixteen**

Truth: The reason Tomoe smiled as she died wasn't because she thought it would make Kenshin feel better. She was just glad she had been fast enough to protect him.

**Seventeen**

Truth: Enishi, though he will never, ever admit it, has always known that the guilt for his sister's death lay at his feet far more than it ever touched his brother-in-law. After all, if the man could wantonly kill his own wife, why would his hell be to lose his woman?

**Eighteen**

Truth: Enishi delivered the fake ransom note to the couple's small house in Otsu, and watched with gleeful anticipation as Kenshin hurried to her rescue. That moment has haunted him ever since.

**Nineteen**

Truth: Enishi was always going to hate Kenshin. The death of his sister was just an excuse—he was always going to despise the man that took his sister away from him.

**Twenty**

Truth: Enishi was prepared to hate Akira just as much. He has and will never be so happy as the day he heard about Tomoe's fiancé's death.

**Twenty One**

Truth: He didn't get to the scene in time to watch Tomoe jump in front of the blade, but he still heard Kenshin scream Tomoe's name like a lost child crying for his mother.

**Twenty Two**

Truth: He didn't blame Kenshin because he was the one who held the sword. He just needed someone beside himself to blame for his beloved sister's death—or he would have gone even crazier than he already was.

**Twenty Three**

Truth: Enishi was never evil. He was a terrified, lonely little boy who lost the only person he ever loved, and his heart never moved from that place.

**Twenty Four**

Truth: Even so, he was still too much of a coward to approach his dying sister's bloodstained form. He didn't want that to be the way he remembered her.

**Twenty Five**

Truth: If he had run, he would have made it to her side in time. He would have gotten one last smile.

**Twenty Six**

Truth: Love makes monsters of us all.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Here's the next installment of Monsters and Demons. It's only twenty truths this time though. I hope you enjoy it!

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**Twenty Truths about Monsters and Demons**

**One**

Truth: When Sanosuke first met the Kenshin-gumi, he was more like Jin-e than he was like Kenshin. He traded employers as easily as paychecks, with no loyalty left for anyone but himself. And what he wanted most was a fight.

**Two**

Truth: Kaoru and Yahiko don't understand this about him, but when Sanosuke told the Hiruma brothers that it was up to his opponents whether they lived or died, he meant it. Sanosuke never aimed to kill, but he still has over thirty graves to his name.

**Three**

Truth: Kenshin understands this perfectly.

**Four**

Truth: There was a time when Kenshin was wary around Sano. It was not when he first saw him fight at the Akabeko, or even when the younger man came to the dojo to challenge him. It was months later, when he first realized that Sano knew about the deaths he had caused… and didn't really care.

**Five**

Truth: Sano was hurt by the sudden distance in his friend's eyes. He didn't—couldn't—understand, because he truly believed that any grown man who died in a fight where his opponent wasn't even trying to kill him had it coming.

**Six**

Truth: Kenshin got over it quickly enough, if only because he has come to expect that attitude in any fighter even approaching his level of skill. He tries very hard not to think about what this might mean.

**Seven**

Truth: The real reason Kenshin was in Tokyo the night he met Kaoru was because he routinely hunted down murders and bandits that had taken to calling themselves Battousai. He had heard about this imposter a few towns up the road and decided to take care of it.

**Eight**

Truth: This tendency actually made his path incredibly easy to follow. Kenshin is still surprised it took the government so long to catch up to him. He won't admit it, but he used to wish they would hurry up about it.

**Nine.**

Truth: If Kenshin thought about it, and he tries not to, he would tell you there were two reasons for his impatience. The first reason—and he hopes Megumi never, ever find out about it—is that he thought he might die on whatever mission they had for him, and he could finally rest. Sometimes redemption just didn't seem worth the loneliness.

**Ten.**

Truth: This is, believe it or not, the more noble of the two reasons.

**Eleven.**

Truth: The second reason was petty, and Kenshin feels guilt for it, but it's been building in him since he first realized that not only did his blood-soaked sword have precious little effect on the outcome of the war, but that to put it down would be a betrayal to all of his victims. The second reason was, simply, that Kenshin wanted the satisfaction of seeing the looks on his superiors' smug faces when he said "no".

**Twelve.**

Truth: Even though, when the time came, he gave the right answer for the right reasons, Kenshin is still glad he got to make Okubo sweat.

**Thirteen.**

Truth: Saitou has one, surprisingly straightforward reason for declining the duel the Battousai had so thoughtfully offered after they had finsihed with Enishi. Or, upon careful consideration, two.

**Fourteen.**

Truth: The first reason is that he would lose. This is not so petty a reason as it seems. Being defeated by the Battousai would be very nearly as satisfying as being the victor. The dance of blades and blood would be more than enough. No, Saitou declined because losing and being denied the death he had _earned_ would be unbearable.

**Fifteen.**

Truth: The only reason this stops him is that he is also sure the Battousai would count acting as his second a breach of his vow.

**Sixteen.**

Truth: The second reason is that calling any future battle between them the 'final' one would be a farce. He didn't realize it at the time, too caught up in the rhythm of hearts and blades and where to _strike_, but the loss was already his.

**Seventeen.**

Truth: Saitou had scored many hits in that brief fight in the girl's dojo. All glancing blows. Even the chest wound he had so disdained the other for allowing had hardly slowed the younger man down. The Battousai had scored few. But the first, the very first...

**Eighteen.**

Truth: With any blade on Earth but the sakabatou, it was a beheading blow.

**Nineteen.**

Truth: There is a third reason, but this Saitou will happily take to his grave. Saitou Hajime, as the last Wolf of Mibu, _cannot_ go into a battle named 'final' with the hitokiri Himura Battousai and allow both to walk away alive. And...he's not quite ready to tell his wife and sons goodbye.

**Twenty.**

Truth: Evil, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

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**A/N:** I have another idea for a chapter focusing on Kaoru and Yahiko, but it still needs a lot of work. Should I go for it or let this one rest for a while?


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